On other 17s I have owned in the past I've run 215/45/17 tires. I am considering running a 225/45/17 to get the speedo as close as possible and also gain the ~.4" extra tire width. Any idea if a 225 will rub on the suspension or wheel wheels? I'm not as concerned about the suspension itself (based on the offset) but am curious if others have run a 225 on a 35 offset.

You will touch the wheel well plastic at full lock with a 35mm offset, and you may run into rubbing the rear quarters depending on what brakes you run.

My old 35mm offset rims were only 7" wide and they were flush with the front fenders and rubbed the rear's. And that was without any disc brakes pushing out the bearing. IIRC the rear disc I had on that car the Bearing mounted directly to the axle with nothing between, unlike the neon has the bracket between the two pushing them out some.

Jon, were those 225s on those wheels? I wish I'd taken pics of these wheels on the car with the 215 tire mounted... With the 35mm offset they did stick out a tad but I didn't take not of how close it was to the fender lip.

Broke down and bought a set of Cooper RS3-S tires in 225/45/17. Got a screaming deal on them @ Discount Tire Direct. Should be here next week and I'll get them installed ASAP. Very excited (and a bit anxious) to see them on the car(s) and make sure they clear everything!